There is a real need for determining the surface area of workpieces, particularly for surface treatments, such as electroplating, anodizing, electrolytic plastic deposition or electrolytic immersion lacquering, so that current density, inter alia, can be set correctly. Previously-proposed methods to determine surface areas have found only limited acceptance in practice because they either lack required accuracy or are too complicated.
While the surface areas of standard pieces are listed in tables and are thus easily accessible, such surface area tables do not exist for workpieces of a more complex configuration. Nomograms exist for a number of simply shaped pieces but they likewise do not exist for more complex parts.
German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,115,071 describes one method for determining surface area and also notes that quantity determinations can be effected analytically, for example by precipitation, titration and photometric or coulometric measurements, but fails to provide a more detailed description of steps to be taken in such processes; no such methods have thus far found acceptance in practice and obtained results have been rather imprecise.